Chelsea maintained their
unbeaten run in the Premier League on Saturday after Diego Costa scored
in the 67th-minute to hand them a 2-1 victory over Liverpool at Anfield.Liverpool had taken the lead through Emre Can's deflected shot only for the Blues to level through Gary Cahill, who scrambled the ball over the line shortly after. Simon Mignolet's efforts to keep the ball out were in vain after goal-line technology was used to confirm the goal.
Costa completed the comeback after some fine work by Cesar Azpilicueta and though the Reds showed no signs of giving up - with a penalty claim turned down when Gary Cahill leaned his arm towards a Steven Gerrard strike from the edge of the box - Chelsea hung on find through five minutes of stoppage time to claim a vital victory.
The defeat was Liverpool's third in seven days, while Chelsea preserved their four-point lead over Southampton.
Manchester City lost further ground as they required a double salvo from Sergio Aguero to spare their blushes against QPR.
Manuel Pellegrini admitted the champions were in the midst of a crisis of confidence following their midweek Champions League defeat to CSKA Moscow, and QPR seemed determined to increase City's misery at Loftus Road.
Charlie Austin scored the opening goal after finding the City net for the third time after 21 minutes. He had two strikes ruled out in the space of 30 seconds just eight minutes in, but each time the visitors' shambolic defence was reprieved.
QPR's lead lasted just 11 minutes, however, as Sergio Aguero pounced for the visitors - pulling the ball down before twisting and turning Steven Caulker and tucking it in.
City pressed but 14 minutes from time Austin's effort was turned into his own net by Martin Demichelis. Aguero was not done, though - City's talisman striking an 83rd-minute equaliser to rescue his side.
Juan Mata stepped off the bench to score the winner as Manchester United returned to winning ways despite a lacklustre display against Crystal Palace.
Just four minutes after coming on for Adnan Januzaj, the United midfielder curled a deflected shot past Julian Speroni to hand Louis van Gaal's men a 1-0 win.
The result was a welcome one for United fans and their manager, who had not won any of his previous three matches.
But in truth, he will still feel a bit of the lousiness he spoke about at his pre-match press conference on Friday.
Elsewhere in the Premier League, Southampton retained second spot in the table thanks to Shane Long's brace securing a 2-0 victory over Leicester City, while West Ham and Aston Villa shared a stalemate and Burnley finally snatched their first win of the season at the 11th attempt - seeing off Hull City 1-0.
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